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More Never-Before-Seen Photos of St. Louis History

A young man and his two lady friends take a spin in the new-fangled invention of the day, the gas-powered automobile.

Yesterday, Daily RFT showed you some lost photos of St. Louis circa 1900, courtesy of found photo buff John Foster's blog. Foster's worked to rejuvenate and make public the near 100 photos he recently came into, offering visual insight into the city's goings-on of yesteryear.

And the images are still coming. Foster offered Daily RFT readers an exclusive look at three more unreleased photos.

"My original reaction was one of pure delight in discovery, that this is something that the entire city should know about," Foster says. "The discovery involves pulling each image out, cleaning them, photographing them in high-resolution and then reversing them. It's a long process, but the goal is for everyone in St. Louis to be able to share the results."

These three most recent additions show the construction behind the 1904 World's Fair (below) and two pretty sweet rides: a Twain-style riverboat (below) and an early automobile right out of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (above). Here's hoping Foster resuscitates even more of these gems soon.

Courtesy of John Foster

Rare image of construction of World's Fair, c. 1900.

Courtesy of John Foster

A hard working riverboat named "Dr. Frederick Hill" takes on cargo. Below the image is some deterioration of the emulsion, looking at first glance like waves.